Speech intelligibility of deaf speakers and distinctive feature usage

Speech samples (41 CNC monosyllables) of 22 deaf children were analyzed using two distinctive-feature systems, one acoustic and one physiologic. Moderate to high correlations between intelligibility scores by listener judges vs correct feature usage were obtained for positive as well as negative features of both systems. Further, higher correlations between percent-correct feature usage scores vs listener intelligibility scores were observed for phonemes in the initial vs final position-in-work regardless of listener-judge experience, feature system, or presentation mode. These findings suggest that either acoustic or physiologic feature analysis can be employed in describing the articulation of deaf talkers. In general, either of these feature systems also predicts with fair to good accuracy the intelligibility of deaf speakers as judged by either experienced or inexperienced listeners. In view of the appreciably higher correlations obtained between feature use and intelligibility scores in initial compared to final position-in-word, however, caution should be exercised with either of the feature systems studied in predicting the intelligibility of a deaf speaker's final phoneme.